Eclipse Child |✔|

|50|

"That's not a pack," my suddenly sober voice startles him back to awareness. A low growl leaves his throat as he edges closer to me.

"It is."

"No- everyone knows what Contritum means," I lean forward also, playing along with his serious face as I hiss the ugly word, "broken. Contritum is latin for broken."

He does not say anything. He can't because there was no arguing the truth.

"That is not a pack. It never was a pack! It is where other packs toss aside their ruined souls, so they no longer have to look at them."

"I know."

I stare at him, my mind reflecting back to his limp. He was a part of this pack. He claimed to be from it.

"There is no Alpha over it because there is nothing to lead-,"
He yells, finally cracking under my words.

"There is something! We are something!"

I pull back, instinct telling me I had done something to push this male to far.

"Listen to me! I came here because I know about you," he points to me as if those words are true, his eyes stripping me down to glare at my soul. I want to look away but am trapped as his height presses at me to make me feel small. I try to sit up, try to act like I am not something weak to be taken lightly. The movement causes pain to shoot up my back- a wince to follow.

"There!" A look of triumph raises in his eyes as he pulls back, "I saw that look! I know it!"

"You don't know anything- this meeting is over and I refuse your offer."

He only grins and sits back down. I stare in disbelief, meaning to rise and take him out by force if I had to- but his next words stop me.

"They were going to send you there...When you became damaged and your back twisted like that." He doesn't state it as a question. He only gives me a knowing smile.

"I can see the question in your eyes. How? How would I know? They called me. Told me they might have a new addition to my 'pack'" he laughs lightly at his own words, "said there was a girl who had curved her spine too much- there was a possibility she wouldn't be able to undergo her first shift."

I knew this. I knew all of this already. How dad sat down next to me and told me there was a possibility I would never shift. How Grandma prayed and prayed- begging and pleading and still nothing happened. She screamed saying she deserved this and when the room was empty I would laugh. I would laugh at how anyone had the audacity to demand such an outright wish to the Moon Goddess.

Mom with her locked away hands. There were whispers that she could have been there also. I knew those like mom who didn't shift were sent somewhere- but her position as a Luna saved her of that fate.

And me.

Me as I laid there unable to move with whispers of my future being shoved down at me.

With Vincent telling me his own cruel words that I had already constructed within my head.

"I didn't go there."

He looks around the office, the dominance and power that leaked from every pore of the room, his silent answer almost spoken out loud as his eyes screamed, obviously.

"But you did."

A grim smile spread across his face.

"Yes. But I'm not telling you my sob story."

"Your name?"

He waves it away, "not important."

"How do you expect trust if you can't even give me that?"